Our Own Worst Enemy
by Starpenmusic
Summary: The mind, our own worst enemy. It has has the ability to trap us and lock us away. Even against our will. But there's one thing more powerful. Read and review!


"_Come out." They pleaded. "Come back?" It made no difference. She couldn't have come back no matter how much she wanted to. Her mind was a maze, black and empty that had swallowed her whole, doomed to spend the rest of her time trapped in that cage. Like a feral animal it had picked her clean, wiping away any hope or resistance from her until she was a limp mass, too weak to move. She hated crying, yet here tears were all she could muster. They poured from her eyes in buckets, threatening to drown her. But drowning would mean relief, an escape from her current state. Hours would pass, blurring into days. A moment could feel like an eternity, an eternity of fighting the monster she knew was herself. She would try to scream, only to find her voice swept away by the pure terror. _

_Unable to think, unable to breathe. She would leave as long as she could; refusing to give up. If she did she would become just another lost soul floating around her unconscious mind. She knew they tried to help her. She could feel foreign minds, prying minds trying to reach in and find her; bring her out to the surface. But she was too lost, buried away so deep not much was left except for a vague memory. A lingering kiss in the sunshine, a moment of actual joy. But that was it. The memory was like a puzzle piece, a fragment of what once was. There was something they had taken from her; one of the puzzle pieces was gone. She knew she could've fought back. If she had only been able to remember her own name._

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. It was torture, being so close to her yet infinitely farther than he could have ever imagined. He would sit with her for hours, watching her hands shake and body silently shiver. No matter what he did, he couldn't bring her back. But he wouldn't leave her. Not until she came back. He would stare into her lifeless eyes, wishing to see at least a spark of recognition in the blank orbs, as deep and reflecting as an ocean. Unwavering, cold and removed. She was still beautiful though. Skin pale in the light, dark hair almost purple and matted to her neck with sweat. Her hands lay open on her lap, cold even when he held them for hours on end.

The others would stop by, scared and disturbed by the face that was no longer concealed by a hood. He would try to amuse her, twisting and warping his body into any animal he could think of. She never smiled though. In darker moments he worried she would never see or hear again. When the crying started his heavy heart shattered. Tears would fall from her still eyes. She wouldn't move, wouldn't blink. Tears would just rain from her eyes without a whimper. No matter what her family was or what she had done, she didn't deserve that. No one did.

That night rang loud and clears in his mind, nightmarish images exploding in front of his eyes. It was supposed to have been so simple, only a few low level crooks that they were supposed to clean up for the bigger heroes. But they had helped and they had found his mind, wild and open before they began ripping into it. But she had fought for him. She had looked at him as they attacked her mind instead and a lone tear shone on her cheek. As she had whispered his name they had locked her in her prison. It was his fault, his nagging guilt. Would it have hurt so much if he hadn't loved her? If in that last second the walls that she had built up hadn't come crashing down? So he followed the same routine month after month. From dusk to dawn he would talk to her, telling her about a life she was missing. Until the day they told him she was too far gone to ever come back. So he sat with her one last time, knotting his fingers in her hair. "Raven." Passion and desperation mingled into one. "Rachel.

_The image of Gars face was so clear it was almost if she could see again. "Raven." If she had been an optimistic person she would have thought it was his voice bouncing around in her head. She wanted to reach out, tell him she was here. Then it was more hushed. "Rachel." Something clicked in her. Lips twitched. "Gar."_


End file.
